Heath attorney seeks medical exam

Updated 11:35 pm, Monday, July 15, 2013

In this file photo John Heath listens at his arraignment in the Danbury Superior Court on Tuesday May 1, 2012.

In this file photo John Heath listens at his arraignment in the Danbury Superior Court on Tuesday May 1, 2012.

Photo: Lisa Weir

Heath attorney seeks medical exam

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DANBURY -- The lawyer for former Newtown resident John Heath wants a doctor to determine if Heath is healthy enough to stand trial for allegedly murdering his wife and burying her under a barn in 1984.

Fairfield attorney Francis O'Reilly claims the illnesses of the 70-year-old former commercial painter and Vietnam veteran "may impede his ability to participate in the trial" and wants a state Superior Court judge to order a medical examination.

Jury selection in Heath's trial is scheduled to begin in Superior Court on Tuesday, but the process could be delayed if Judge Robin Pavia grants the motion.

O'Reilly said his client, who has been held on $1 million bond since his arrest, has been diagnosed with both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. He said during a meeting with his client in June, Heath became fatigued after only an hour, raising questions about whether he could withstand the stress of the trial.

The defense attorney said Heath, who has made all of his previous court appearances in a wheelchair and who breathes with the aid of an oxygen tank, has been hospitalized eight times since he was arrested in April 2012, two years after Elizabeth Heath's remains were found beneath the floor of the apartment he had built under the one-time dairy barn on the Poverty Hollow Road property where they once lived.

For years, Heath claimed his 32-year-old wife ran off in the middle of the night, leaving behind their 4-year-old daughter and her dog, her car and nearly all of her belongings.

They had been married for nearly six years and were in the early stages of a divorce, Heath said.

But in April 2010, the son of the new owner of the property that Heath and his current wife, Raquel, lost to foreclosure in 2005 was renovating the apartment when he discovered Elizabeth Heath's remains, wrapped in bedclothes and stuffed head-first into a cistern beneath the floor.

An autopsy determined she died of multiple blows to the head. She also suffered a broken arm, consistent with a defensive wound, according to the 30-page arrest warrant affidavit made public after John Heath's arrest.

The affidavit also includes, almost verbatim, many of the interviews police conducted during the investigation, shedding light on the couple's faltering marriage and laying bare the suspicions of friends, neighbors and members of John Heath's family that he was responsible for her disappearance.

But most of the information in the document appears to be circumstantial, thin on the kind of forensic evidence that would conclusively tie a suspect to a crime.

Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Warren Murray, who will prosecute the case, said Monday he had just returned from vacation and hadn't yet had a chance to respond to the motion, which was filed while he was away.

He declined to comment on the defense request.

Court officials said Monday a panel of potential jurors will be in the courthouse Tuesday morning, but it remains uncertain whether they will be interviewed for service on Heath's jury or for other trials.

Neither Murray nor O'Reilly would speculate about the effect a favorable ruling on the defense motion would have on the start of jury selection.

But both noted that testimony in the trial isn't scheduled to begin until at least September.